How To Help

What can YOU do?

Here are some ways that you can take action to help establish single-payer healthcare for all in the U.S.

1. USE SOCIAL MEDIA to keep yourself informed and the national discussion going! Join DUH’s social media following (see the Our Social Media page), but better yet, if you or your organization has no social media presence, create one! Not only can you build a following that will help spread the word about you and your group, but by liking, commenting, sharing, and posting, you can add to the collective voice defeating misinformation, lies, and propaganda being sent out from the Right. Like it or not, social media is THE tool for staying informed!

2. MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT! – Know how your candidates rate on healthcare (and other issues that are important to you) and vote accordingly! Don’t be distracted by the misbehavior, false information, or even crimes of candidates and media alike. For the rest of the election cycle, check our 2018 Candidates page and be sure to visit your candidate's website!

3. EDUCATE YOURSELF! First, If you don’t know the facts about what we're fighting for, read the actual bill, H.R. 676, the Expanded & Improved Medicare for All Act.he House and S. 1804, Bernie's bill, the Medicare for all Act. Also take advantage of our fact sheets on our Info & Resources page. Your local organization may also have materials you can benefit from. The more you know, the more you’ll be able to challenge misinformation, alarmist propaganda, and spread the truth whenever you have a chance!

4. BECOME A RAPID RESPONDER If you see, read, or hear something that makes your blood boil unleash your inner pundit and respond! Try to write, call or video as soon as possible since yesterday’s news is late and last week’s is old. Always respond to lies and alarmism with facts and be sure to attribute your sources or state when it’s your own opinion. Lots of times the reply can be done via comments online.

5. BECOME A PUBLIC SPEAKER and look for opportunities to share the FACTS about universal healthcare to different groups in your community! Electronic copies of fact sheets and other handouts you can print are available on the Info & Materials page.

6. TELL YOUR STORY! We all know that the most effective argument you can make is to tell a legislator, skeptic, or truthseeker the story of your own personal experience. Chances are they will relate much better to personal struggles than they would to data and statistics. Calls for people to share their stories are frequently ignored due to concerns about privacy, shame, stigma, or retribution. It takes a lot of courage, but any revolution requires courage from the people daring to buck the establishment. Answer one of those calls and prove to yourself and the nation how brave you are!

7. DON’T JUST “PREACH TO THE CHOIR!” – Be well-informed and willing to talk to anyone about NIMA! Battles are never won by assuming your audience can’t or won’t listen and be moved or by giving up before you begin! We will need allies from ALL backgrounds in order to pass single-payer!

8. JOIN A SINGLE-PAYER ADVOCACY GROUP if you haven’t already. Chances are there’s at least one in your state and if not, you could join one of the national groups – Health Over Profit for Everyone (HOPE), Progressive Democrats of America’s Healthcare issue team; Physicians for a National Healthcare Program (PNHP); or the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer Healthcare, among others. And of course you’re always welcome to help DUH – we aren't a conventional membership group, but we can always use volunteers! Especially prized would be experienced fundraisers, event planners, and computer geniuses!

9. HOST OR VOLUNTEER to help with a DUH event!

10. ATTEND A DUH event!

11. SUPPORT THE CAUSE by donating whatever and whenever you can to your favorite organization(s) - we hope one of them is DUH!

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The Window Treatment Campaign

North Carolina Healthcare activist Marcia Everett has come up with a creative idea to spread the word about National Improved Medicare for All and HOPE (Health Over Profit for Everyone) has run with it! As a member of the HOPE Coaliiton, DUH is promoting this campaign.

Here's how it works:

We're asking everyone to put up signs that say HR 676 – NIMA. Begin on your own front door or windows, then on your vehicle (small enough to not block your view!), and then around your town. Don’t forget to ask your local advocacy groups and social justice organizations to join you in this campaign.

HOPE found a graphic artist to create the 18" X 24"signs below. If you'd like a sign, email info@healthoverprofit.org to ask for one - they'll send them to you for free (though please donate - these things cost money to print and to send!) as long as supplies last. But you can also design your own and make different sizes.

Curtains and blinds used to be called window treatments. Playing on the pun of “treatment” needed for our sick healthcare system, let’s make our windows well! Put one of these signs in a very visible place in your home, on your garage door, or auto windows. Then think about places around town you could put smaller ones you make yourself! Store, church, or restaurant windows (with permission, of course), your school or workplace, etc. You can put one anywhere that you can put up a sign for a political candidate! Make a few to carry at rallies or town halls!

The idea is to get people to notice and ask about these signs. When the local news starts reporting on them, we'll know we've made an impact!

We must demand NATIONAL IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL (NIMA). YOUR participation in the Window Treatment Campaign would greatly help to amplify our demand!